La Plata, MD – A trial of a man charged with murdering a woman and dumping her body over a guard rail into a steep ravine in western Charles County in 2012 has taken a long time to get to Charles County Circuit Court. Prosecutors were prepared to try Raymond Daniel Posey III, 24 of Nanjemoy, back in November of last year, but the Charles County State’s Attorney’s Office invoked the “Batson challenge,” prompting Circuit Court Judge H. James West to determine that the defendant’s legal team was excluding potential jurors based on their race.
After spending most of Monday picking a new jury, the trial got underway Tuesday, Feb. 7 with dramatic opening arguments. Charles County Assistant States Attorney Francis Granados pulled no punches. The prosecutor said that co-defendant Durell Wilson and Posey left a party in Nanjemoy with 24-year-old murder victim Crystal Anderson July 26, 2011. That was the last time she was seen alive. Granados claimed the two men took Anderson, a PCP user, to “hook up” with her dealer, then drove her to western Charles County, to Purse State Park when Posey got out of the car and went to fetch something out of the trunk.
“It’s a remote area,” Granados stated. “Heavily wooded. No traffic. No street lights. No residences. As Crystal was coming around the car, Mr. Posey pulled out a gun. He robs her of her drugs and money and then he shoots her. At this point Mr. Wilson exits the car. They picked up her body and threw it over a guard rail into a steep ravine. They left Crystal to die that night thinking they had put her body where no one would ever find her. But the truth doesn’t remain hidden forever.”
Granados alleged that Posey killed Anderson because his brother owed her several thousand dollars for drugs he had purchased from her. He said the two men went back to the site the following day to retrieve shell casings, then proceeded to sell Crystal’s clothes and shoes. “They sold her dog,” the prosecutor said. “They even sold the gun Raymond used to shoot her with.” He added that Posey told a state’s witness in the case, “ ‘Yeah, I killed her. I busted that bitch.’ ”
Anderson’s remains were not found until January of 2012. Her skull, he said, was never found. He alleged a hurricane flooded the region and may have swept some of the remains away. It wasn’t until Posey was arrested in February 2012 on robbery charges that detectives were finally able to interview him about the case. Granados asserted that on at least two occasions after his arrest, Posey offered one witness $10,000, and another $5,000 not to testify against him in court.
Posey’s attorney, John Chase Johnson, claimed that the evidence is not going to support the state’s case. He said the state has no physical evidence, no cell phone records to indict his client, and failed to conduct a forensic report. “Those are things that should have been on their to-do list,” Johnson said.
The trial is expected to last a full two weeks.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com